Round 2

Getting up at 5 am is for the birds...or maybe serial killers. I'll bet master criminals and evil geniuses always sleep late and are refreshed. Serial killers get up early and look really haggard in their booking photos, much like I will look when we have to take ID pictures.

I finally wrote some half-assed thesis statement on a trend restaurant that offers dining in the dark...yes, you read that correctly. You are given a menu in the lobby, you select your food, and then you're guided to your table in total darkness by sight-impaired servers, and you eat your entire meal in pitch blackness. I'm thinking that you save a lot on decor that way. (My thesis topic, BTW, is about do we need ALL our senses to appreciate a meal...lame, I know, but I was desperate at 11 pm last night.)

Guess who shows up for class today? Merlot. In an "unofficial" chef coat and pants; surprise, surprise. Yesterday, during her bitching, she was all like "do we have to buy the coats and pants here? Can't I buy the notebooks at Waaaalll-Mart?" After being told yeah, she did have to buy the coat there, because it has to have Fine Technical College's logo and ditto on the pants; however, she did have the option to go to Office Despot to get her notebook, that was when she left.

I'm wondering if her rebelliousness is going to be commented on, and sure enough it is. At the end of class, Chef goes around the room and quizzes us on our various stages of dress. My pants will be ready at the tailor's this afternoon, and I've got a substitute pair of shoes I can use until they send me a new size, so I should be covered on the uniform points by Monday. She asks Merlot "what about your jacket?" Merlot comes back with "they didn't have my size," to which Chef replies, "And what are YOU doing about that? And, you need to get 'our' pants as well." I think it took ol' Merlot back a bit that yes, she was really going to have to toe the line like everyone else and suck it up and actually purchase a more expensive coat and pants. And, she got the wrong notebook, too. The handbook clearly states the brand and stock number of the one you get at the Office Despot (also stated in the handbook)...she went to Staples.

Of course, Merlot is on our team, and she keeps up a running commentary throughout class about the things we went over yesterday, after she left, that she has no clue about...like forms for X, forms for Y, etc. We all take turns telling her, "it's on the CD," and someone (not me!) says rather pointedly after the 3rd or 400th time, that we got those AFTER she left. It doesn't seem to faze her a bit that she's not prepared.

Wonder if we get points off if we debone our team mates rather than the chicken?